I broke my arm skateboarding down a monster hill on a homemade skateboard when I was 14. It was a hill I had skated many times but there was a section that required slowing down, a section with increased steepness and a sharp turn. I was late on my way to school and just didn't slow on this particular day until it was a little late. I slid for a distance on the inside of my elbows and my huge brass beltbuckle--both were shreaded. I know what you're thinking, "knarly dude."

But it wasn't very bad. A little disinfectant to keep the exposed elbow bones from getting infected and I would have been fine. Unfortunately I went to see a doctor, more to get out of school than because I felt I needed anything. Even though I didn't need it, the doctor put a cast on me for two weeks because he thought it would discourage me from skateboarding. It didn't. But it did mess up my shoulder because I was in the middle of a growth spurt.

Waste of Time

So skip ahead to age 23. I'm doing 6-8 hours a day of Martial arts and Dance and I figure my biggest problem is that my shoulders are stiff and a little uneven. I get to work trying everything under the sun and moon. The first thing I figured out was that I needed to sleep with a shirt on because my shoulders would get cold at night and the muscles would tighten up over night. Without keeping them warm at night any progress I made in loosening them would be reversed by the cold.

Next I did a thousand experiments with bodywork and massage. About 3 hours a week for 4 years. I think this was positive at first but over the long term I simply learned more about how my own body relaxes than the people who were working on me. Now I almost never get bodywork.

At the same time I started creating tools to help me stretch. I had poles, staffs, ropes, bungee, a range of rubber balls from small to big to roll on, lots of eye-bolts in the walls with loops hanging from them, slanted boards, I even modified a door frame so it would be a better jig for me to stretch in. I was very disciplined. My housemates were very accommodating. I think they liked it that visitors to the house asked if our living room was a torture chamber.